Sunday, 29 July 2012

It looks like the Galaxy will Burn, or at least FW are going to give the Horus Heresy a crack and throw out some rules! I am VERY excited about this, and I know I would happily start a heresy era army, and I know a few others which will hope for Xeno Heresy era armies aswell.

Thursday, 19 July 2012

So I had my second practice game against Angryman's Tyranids on last Wednesday. We were playing The Emperors Will with Hammer and Anvil (kill points with Deployment on the short edge).

The game started averagely for me, I had the range and plenty of space behind me to move back into keeping me out of assault, but the dice let me down. My Destroyers were rolling 2's (hit on 3+ and re-rolling 1's) so just couldn't do anything. Despite this for the first 2-3 turns I was able to pick the Tyranids apart (well the smaller stuff) and had a lead of 5-1. Then it all went pear shaped and my army started to collapse. Angryman remembered to roll his "it will not die" (5+ regen) and not being able to ignore FNP with my low ap weapons plus Monstrous creatures being able to get cover much easier. The game ended 6-5 (I think)

The highlight for me was the Doom dropping in next to my Ether Crystal and dieing before he even did anything along with his spore. For Angryman it has to be his Alpha Warrior passing his Mindshackle test and slaughtering my Destroyer Lord (that's when I really lost the game).

One thing I learnt from this game is that the new Psychic powers are RIDICULOUS, especially the Buff powers, if an army has no psychic denial then an opponent can multiply his force greatly (as I found out) and only denying powers that target my units on a 6 is stupid. I had enfeebled cripple my destroyers nearly every turn.

I am thinking I need some anti-psyker allies, unfortunately that would mean standing around on a roll of a 1.

Tuesday, 17 July 2012

So Monday night comes around and I am thrown up against a deep striking Duke Sliscus Dark Eldar list. We get "The Emperors Will" mission with the Dawn of War deployment. Basically Bases, pitched battle.

So I deploy my unit of warriors with Zahdrehk on my base with the immortals slightly over towards his base with the monolith sat in the middle of the deployment zone. The stalker is hiding behind the monolith with the heavy destroyers and destroyers hiding behind terrain and the monolith respectively.

I was going first and made the mistake of keeping my wraiths in reserve instead of the destroyers (no idea why I decided to do that). So I was planning on doing a full battle report but instead of boring you all I am going to do a quick review. It started off badly for me as Mike made a good choice by targeting one unit at a time (meaning I didn't get my Reanimation protocols.

In the first turn I only took two hull points off a Ravager and had my unit of Destroyers obliterated by his armies combined fire. The game continued like this for the first three turns but then Mike moved closer and got into the Necrons ideal range 12-18" and his army started to fall apart as my Gauss weapons and higher strength stated to show. The game ended with me holding my own Objective, my Destroyer Lord contesting his, him with first blood and me with Slay the Warlord (and Linebreaker which I forgot about) so it ended 4-1 (but should have been 5-1)

I was glad I had the solar pulse as it meant I was on a level playing field and range with the Dark Eldar (though it didn't come into effect until turn 5). I did get shown how my army can be picked apart unit at a time (but luckily my list has enough units to handle this for a short period)

I am still undecided on the unit of 5 Destroyers as they are a big threat and short range (Str 5 ap3 24" 2 shot") so they seem to only get 1-2 turns of shooting a game. I'm going to keep trying them to see if it just how I am using them.

The game was close and ended bloodily, my Destroyer Lord won me the game and only by passing a lot of armour saves and being T6 against Str 4 wyches. He is a unit that has always done averagely but usually something I can rely on he rarely does bad, but rarely does great.

Sunday, 15 July 2012

It's time for another "The Road to" article series (they give me a reason to post). This time it is the annual Britcon tournament which we (MAWS) regularly attends, I haven't been for about 3 years now and am itching to get back there. Britcon was my first tournament that I attended and it was a great laugh and we have always had a good time each year, this year there will be a lot less competitiveness as the ETC is at a similar time and a lot of the British team attend Britcon so hopefully I can pick up a place.

Britcon is a 3 day event in mid august with 6 games, it was originally planned to be a farewell 5th edition tournament but has been changed to a welcome 6th. From the rules pack it looks like we won't be playing the Relic scenario (but this could be an early typo), and it will now be a 1999pt tournament rather than 2000pts.

Well I will be playing my first practice game on Monday and will be taking my Necrons running something a little like this:

HQ

Zahndrehk. 185

Destroyer Lord. 125
Septermal weave. 15
Mindshackle scarab. 20
160

Royal court. 95
Harbinger of the storm w/ ether crystal

Harbinger of destruction w/ solar pulse

Elites

Triarch Stalker. 150

Troops

15 warriors. 195
Night Scythe. 100
295

15 warriors. 195

6 immortals. 102
W/ tesla

6 immortals. 102
W/ tesla

Fast attack

3 wraiths. 105
2 whip coils. 20
125

3 heavy Destroyers. 180

5 Destroyers. 200

Heavy

Monolith. 200

That should be 1989 leaving me with 10 points spare.

The Destroyer Lord will be with the Wraiths in reserve to pop through the Monolith, Zahndrehk will be with one unit of 15 warriors giving out Special Rules and taking them away. The two Crypteks will be with the Immortals just hovering around and taking pot shots.

So, what do you think? So far I have had good results with this list in 5th and a win in 6th with a 2100pt version. I take Zahndrehk as he is 5pts more than a standard overlord with the same equipment but gets so much more. I will always take the Destroyers and Monolith as they are some of my favourite Necron units. The Stalker adds so much to the army and has become a big threat to some of my local group because of its ability to make my army twin linked. I have also found units of 15 warriors are much more reliable than 10 but a unit of 2o is just a points waste, 15 are around long enough, and cheap enough to just sit around taking pot shots.

So comments welcome, will write up my first battle report after tomorrow night!